Victors now face grim reality

Shortly before midnight a flare went up in Athens’ Syntagma Square, it was just about the only spark of colour to emerge all night against a dour post-election scene.

Greeks are supposed to be passionate about their politics but this time a feeling of fatigue sapped people’s desire to leave their living rooms and live-out this most significant of Greek elections on the streets.

The atmosphere was calm rather than festive.

Home to the riots that have plagued Athens in the past few years, Syntagma Square lies directly in front of Parliament and is associated with conservative party New Democracy. But despite that party’s win only 200 or so party supporters dropped by.

Making the most of the moment with his small digital camera was Ypsilantis Tzouros. Angela Merkel take note – the business consultant was keen to correct what he sees as a misunderstanding that Syriza is the only party insisting on renegotiating Greece’s bailout. “It’s not just Syriza, that’s opposed to the bailout. We have always been opposed to the bailout as well," he said. It’s just that New Democracy is opposed in a rational way that does not involve putting on thousands more public servants," he said.

He believed that Greeks were now starting to live up the responsibility to steer the country out of crisis.

“The previous election was about anger. This election was about what we really want to do," he said.

For Syriza supporters the place to be was Eleftheriou Square in front of the party’s run down headquarters, but they didn’t stay for long. The small crowd left shortly after leader Alex Tsipras conceded defeat, but not before they had been asked by their hero to continue their struggle in overthrowing the bailout.

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Sunday night’s victors would like Syriza supporters to acknowledge that they now have a mandate to continue with austerity reforms. But there is little such feeling in the Syriza camp with a conviction that New Democracy only won through scare tactics about Greece being pushed out of the euro zone.

“The results show that the terrible propaganda and politics of fear worked," said one Syriza supporter. “The media were out of control, hysterical, claiming every day for the last month that a kind of Mad Max post-apocalyptic situation would emerge if Syriza won," she said.

She consoled herself with the belief that New Democracy would not stay in government for long. They had claimed they would create jobs and support development when their commitment to the bailout memorandum meant they were obliged to do the complete opposite, she said.

If anger is what Syriza voters feel, there is a large bulk of Greeks who seem simply fed up. In a square off Aeolou Street, a shopping strip in central Athens, people were sitting outside bars in the evening.

Production manager Dimitris said he was happy that New Democracy came first but couldn’t bring himself to vote for them. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras “does not have the stature or the abilities," he said. One thing Samaras has in his favour is expectations are already very low.

For example, Eleni Trivoulidou, a divorced, unemployed mother of four almost-grown but still dependent children, has been unable to find work for two years. She’s studying for an accountancy qualification at night school, but in the meantime survives on handouts from her parents, whose pensions have just been slashed, and her ex-husband. All she asks is to be able to go out to the cafe occasionally with her friends.

Others have been forced to wield the axe themselves. George Efstratiadis, obliged to fire more than half his 70-odd staff as the turnover of his family business has plummeted from €9m in 2009 to €4m last year and with luck €2.5m this year, has hugged them and wept. The past two years have been the worst of his life. Since it began in the 1960s, his company had never had to fire anyone